Jack - Twine and Cheese [TFA]

[Copy and Paste for Notekeeping | https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/33238/move-or-melt-monterey-a-cheesy-guide-to-jack-1.0] Valentin1331 · 29441 Monterey Jack bends time and space around to solve the Mythos!

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Thanks to the pool of cards that bring actions when moving in and out of locations, Monterey Jack can bend time, taking 6 actions per turn and space by teleporting himself, clues, and enemies.

Table of Content:

• Overview

• Main Strategy

• Move around the board

• Get the best out of your move

• Get Clues

• Increasing Tempo

• Surviving the Mythos

• Late Campaign

• Good combos

• Upgrade Path

• Alternative Decks

• Alternative Upgrades

Overview:

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆

Enemy Management: ★★☆☆☆

Clue-getting: ★★★★☆

Encounter protection: ★★☆☆☆

Survivability: ★★★☆☆

Economy: ★★★★☆

Card Drawing: ★★★★★

Main Strategy:

Move as much as you can, moving clues to the place that is the most convenient to you with Vantage Point or Gené Beauregard, and empty the Location to get extra actions with Hiking Boots.

Move around the board:

Your main draw and card engine is your . You want to be 2 locations away from your starting location as often as possible. To make sure it happens as often as possible, you need cards that help you move around, Fast, and Far.

Moving Fast:

• Nimble moves you if you evade, Fast.

• Pathfinder moves you once a turn, Fast.

• Hiking Boots move you if you empty your location, Fast.

Moving Far (at least 2 locations away):

• Ethereal Slip moves you if there is an enemy 2 locations away.

• Scout Ahead gives you 2 bonus moves, costing 1 card and 1 resource... that you get back with your .

• Nimble moves you up to 3 locations away.

Get the best out of your move:

As you will spend a good amount of actions Moving during each Scenario, you want to ensure that these actions are not wasted. The best way to do this is to get a side benefit with moving:

• Vantage Point allows you to bring one clue from any other high-shroud location.

• Fieldwork allows you to maximise your chances of success when moving location: as you will want to move each round, it is a free Unexpected Courage each round!.

• Gené Beauregard which is one of your priority upgrades: bring clues to your location to make the best out Fieldwork and make sure that if you go back and forth, you never enter an empty location. She also allows you to teleport enemies to your to leave the space free for you to investigate without AoO.

• Lone Wolf pays you for being away from your team, doing your thing. This becomes less relevant once your has Safeguard (2), though with your high , it is relatively safe for you to venture alone.

Get Clues:

Going to the places where the clues are is important, getting them is better. With 4 , Monterey Jack is not amongst the best seekers and has to compensate.

• Managing your hand slot:

•• Lockpicks (0) snaps when you do not win by 2 or more. But with 9 base skill for a test, up to 11 with Gené Beauregard and Hiking Boots, the only reason for you to fail is . The best way to consider if you should use it is: Raise the Shroud Value of your location by 2, and ask yourself this question: "Am I still sure to succeed?".

•• Fingerprint Kit only has 3 uses. Missing one investigation when you used it is a big waste because it cost you a lot: 4 resources, 1 card, 1 action. So use it when you're sure to succeed, the biggest benefit of this card is the action compression, not the +1 .

•• Trusty Bullwhip is here as a support, in case you need to kill an Acolyte. If you have it in your hand, keep it there. Its biggest advantage is that it's fast and can be played right at the moment when you need it, replacing an empty Fingerprint Kit for example.

•• Magnifying Glass (1) is here to make sure that you have at least static +1 when investigating to complement your static boost from Gené Beauregard. Take it back as soon as you have something else to fill your hand slot with.

Increasing Tempo:

Another way to make sure that you have enough actions to spend them into regular moves is to improve your Tempo:

• Increasing the number of actions per turn:

•• The Mississipi Lion is a must-have in any deck that doesn't suffer from money issues.

•• Quick Thinking gives you one extra move action if you're running short.

•• Eon Chart gives you 2 extra actions per turn, as long as you fill it with secrets. This is potentially 2 moves, or 2 investigations to empty a location before you move out of it.

•• With Leo De Luca, Eon Chart and Ariadne's Twine, you have a potential of 6 Actions per turn!!

• Taking the most out of your actions:

•• Fingerprint Kit is the best example: enter a 2 shroud location, empty it in one turn and leave. 3 actions, 2 clues, and you activate your full .

•• Breaking and Entering gives you almost certainty of Evade, Investigate, and then trigger: Lucky Cigarette Case, Quick Thinking if committed, "Watch this!" if you took it, Hiking Boots if it is the last clue at your location. Long story short: Action Compression.

Surviving the Mythos:

Monterey Jack has unfortunately a 1 and 2 . To compensate, you need some help to survive the Mtyhos.

Treacheries:

• "You handle this one!" is your friend, give away those nasty treacheries such as Frozen in Fear that would make your life impossible. Alternatively, you could replace Vantage Point with Logical Reasoning to get rid of these nasty cards easily.

• Say Your Prayers that helps you when you are on the verge of defeat.

• If you decide to not take Leo De Luca and go for Dr. Milan Christopher instead, Money Talks or Well Connected is a great defense mechanism too.

• Doing the puppy eyes to your teammates to have them use "Let me handle this!", Ward of Protection (2), Leadership and so on.

• You could add Ancient Stone or Archive of Conduits to improve greatly your survivability, but at a great cost of XP.

Protecting yourself against enemies:

• Backstab if a 3-health enemy pops up and your is far.

• Trusty Bullwhip for smaller enemies or to support your .

Late Campaign:

As you earn more experience, your deck will evolve in 2 different ways:

• More Assets:

•• Pathfinder, Gené Beauregard, Hiking Boots, Eon Chart, Ariadne's Twine are as many extra Assets in your deck.

•• They are all investments, though, as all of them are made to improve your tempo: one use of Hiking Boots replaces the turn you took playing them. In this deck more than any other, you can clearly see the return on investment when it comes to Tempo.

• More expensive:

•• Keeping your Leo De Luca and adding Gené Beauregard is really intense on your resource flow. Add the Fingerprint Kit that only has 3 uses or a Lockpicks (0) that has the tendency to break, and end up with a resource-intensive deck.

•• Once all your Assets are down, Ariadne's Twine will cannibalise all your resources to feed your Eon Chart.

•• Faustian Bargain as well as "Watch this!" are here to support your natural cash engine to make sure you can play your assets as soon as you draw them.

Good combos:

• Gené Beauregard and Fieldwork both have the same wording: after you move to a location.

•• You can then choose which one to trigger first. Always use Gené Beauregard to bring a clue to your location if it was empty to get the bonus of Fieldwork. Works also with Vantage Point.

• If you emptied a location and move to a new location with multiple clues, use Gené Beauregard to bring back a clue to your previous location. That will help you trigger Hiking Boots when it is empty.

• Wait to enter a location with a low shroud/enemy with little evade value to use your "Watch this!" with Fieldwork activated. Also wait to have taken all the tokens from your Faustian Bargain.

• You replace it fast, but Ethereal Slip comboes well with Cyclopean Hammer: your / kicks the enemy 2 locations away, and you send it back to them.

Upgrade Path:

• Ethereal Slip x1 + Scout Ahead x1 Pathfinder x2 - 6xp Total 6xp

•• You replace a situational event (3 triggers to play it: 1 enemy, 2 locations away, you want its place) with a recurrent move. Scout Ahead gives net 2 moves, which should not be an issue to get out of Pathfinder.

• Vantage Point x2 Gené Beauregard x2 - 6xp Total 12xp

•• Gené Beauregard is basically Vantage Point once a turn with an extra .

• Charisma - 3xp - Total 15xp

• Scout Ahead x1 + Nimble x1 Hiking Boots x2 - 2xp - Total 17xp

•• Scout Ahead was bringing you a net 2 moves on top of the action of playing it. No doubt you will trigger the shoes more than twice per scenario. They also give you +1 for each test against 1 test only for Nimble as well as offering you Fast moves.

• Breaking and Entering x1 Magnifying Glass x1 - 1xp - Total 18xp

•• For in between uses of Fingerprint Kit.

• Breaking and Entering x1 Eon Chart x1 - 4xp Total 22xp

•• Breaking and Entering gives you 2 actions in 1 card: Investigate and Evade. So does the Eon Chart... 3 times with more flexibility in the actions you can take.

• Relic Hunter x1 - 3xp Total 25xp

•• To keep access to your Lucky Cigarette Case.

• Quick Thinking x1 -> Ariadne's Twine x1 - 3xp Total 28xp

•• At this point Eon Chart gives you so many extra actions that Quick Thinking becomes less important.

Make your own Deck!

• Dr. Milan Christopher instead of Leo De Luca. This is the biggest doubt I had before publishing this deck. As we expect very big maps in EotE, I would tend towards Leo that can be used to move around, but Milan is amazing to bring a passive as well as resource for this expensive deck. If you're the main cluever in a 3 or 4 people game, I would go for Dr. Milan Christopher in order to pick the clues in the higher shroud places otherwise, The Mississippi Lion seems to be the best pick.

• Hawk-Eye Folding Camera x2 instead of Lockpicks + Fingerprint Kit. Maybe to complete with No Stone Unturned or Eureka! to try to get it out ASAP. This is great to counter the 1 of Monterey Jack but in my opinion, it slows you down early in the scenario and prevents you from using the good flexibility of your Trusty Bullwhip. Though it combos great with Gené Beauregard and Vantage Point.

• Think on Your Feet that is good because it counts for your . But it is a little bit situational, and you have a ridiculous evade value anyways. I would only consider it in high-enemy campaigns such as TFA. Same goes for Elusive.

• Deduction is often the first one we think about when adding cards. But here, it hardly makes the cut in my opinion as it is 1 card for 1 clue... if you succeed. Vantage Point on the other hand, helps you find clues during one turn, brings one clue from a high shroud location to a lower, and is Fast.

• Liquid Courage that helps you heal yourself with Say Your Prayers... but it is often much faster to play it immediately against an Encounter Test that could kill you.

Alternative Upgrades:

• Ancestral Knowledge is good as it allows you to bring back lvl 0 cards if you upgraded some out earlier in your upgrade path.

• A Big-Hand Jack is potentially viable with Forbidden Tome. In this case you should use your Ancestral Knowledge to bring Laboratory Assistant, Dream-Enhancing Serum and Arcane Enlightenment.

• The new Archive of Conduits and especially the Gateway to Acheron lets you teleport investigators around the map. That is insanely strong. This could fit in this deck as a first upgrade, replacing Vantage Point x2 Arcane Enlightenment x1 + Archive of Conduits (0). That brings a higher level of complexity to the deck but gives you so much benefit for every Resign scenario: you rush forward and teleport your teammates to the resign location. It also allows you to trigger your double reward with only 1 move action.

• Big Money Jack that brings Gregory Gry, Cunning Distraction, Well Connected and uses the over-success on Lockpicks. Bring Daring Maneuver to make sure not to lose the lockpicks too early and use all the money with Lola Santiago to accelerate the rate of clue collection.